this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
906 points (98.8% liked)
Technology
59428 readers
2820 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Depending on where you lived you were plied with anti-union rhetoric. I remember back in the '80s and working at a department store and they had us watch "training" videos about how we were a big family and how unions broke up that family and made us adversaries. I thought it was a bunch of bull, but I'm sure there were plenty of folks that bought into it.
I think the most common explanation for anti union sentiment is this:
Most of the time, our justifications for doing anything are post-hoc: we decide based on gut reasoning, then invent a justification after we've already made up our minds in order to convince ourselves that we're creatures of logic.
When companies show those videos, it does two things: it intimidates, and it provides ready-made arguments for post-hoc justification.
They intimidate workers from organizing, but no one's ego can accept that. If someone says "let's unionize", most people think (subconsciously) 'Fuck!!! That's scary! We're not strong enough, and I'm gonna get totally beaten down if I stick my neck out!!'
And then their brain does it's thing and translates that into justifications, and when it needs words to form justifications, it draws then from the handy dandy premade justifications they were given during their intimation session. It's like, 'You're a bug, and if you fight us we'll step on you! Now here's a balm to soothe this massive wound to your pride. You're welcome. Now get back to work.'
Woah, are you telling me that people are not rational thinking creatures instead act purely on emotion. Cause I fully support that statement.
We have stop using the "reasonable, rational thinking" person as a standard. If people were truly that, there would be a lot less people in debt, more people taking care of their health before problems arose, and less bullshit overall.
True. I remember thinking it was a load of crap, but it certainly got the message across that I'd be alone and out of a job if I tried to form a union.
And I also remember lessons in class where the textbook weren't l went into great detail about the corruption and mob ties of some unions, but very little about anything positive. There has definitely been an effort on the part of powerful folks to denigrate unions.
I remember reading The Jungle in college and getting a much different perspective of labor laws and union value
They don't understand or see themselves as workers because of things like this, they see themselves as individuals who will succeed if they just try their best and be their most "authentic" selves or whatever BS they use. Most important message they try to send is your position in the economic system is about you as an individual and not because of your class or relation to capital.